Friedrich and brakeman Thorsten Margis shared the lead with Lochner and Joshua Bluhm after three runs, but they won the final heat for an overall aggregate time of 3 min 26.09sec that secured them victory.

Lochner and Bluhm finished 0.17 seconds behind the winners, replicating their silver medal-winning performance from last year’s World Championships in the German town of Winterberg. 

"This was the hardest and most tiring race so far after a season of ups and downs," said Friedrich, who recovered from straining a thigh muscle just three weeks ago.

"A big thank you to everyone who made this possible."

Beat Hefti and Alex Baumann of Switzerland, who won the European title last week, were 0.22 seconds behind in third.

Junior world champion Lochner held a lead of 0.15 seconds over Friedrich after yesterday’s first two heats.

The 25-year-old set a track record of 51.47 in the third heat, only for Friedrich to slice another 0.15 seconds off that time just a minute later.

Lochner lost time in the final heat after his bob slid sideways towards the end of his run, allowing Friedrich to seal victory despite starting slower.

"At the moment we’re just happy to have won silver," said Lochner.

"But we could have done better, we proved that in the first runs.

"Unfortunately we made the error in the final run when the sled swerved."

Lochner went on to help Germany win the team competition for the sixth time after clocking the quickest time in the concluding two-man bobsleigh heat with brakeman Tino Paasche.

The German outfit, which also included men’s skeleton racer Axel Jungk, women’s bobsleigh pilot Anja Schneiderheinze and brakewoman Franziska Bertels, and women’s skeleton racer Tina Hermann, clocked an overall time of 3:31.47 to beat Russia by 0.65 seconds.

Hosts Austria won their first medal at the Championships by coming third, 1.46 seconds back.

Action in Innsbruck is set to resume on Thursday (February 18) with the opening two heats of the men's skeleton competition.